Mysterious Facts and Analysis

NATO’s Worldwide Expansion in the Post-Cold World Era is Threat to the World Peace & Diplomatic Terrorist Organization under the umbrella of US

2013-04-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

One of the most significant developments of the post-Cold War era, and certainly the most ominous, is the transformation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military bloc created by the United States during the genesis of the Cold War in 1949, into one that has grown to encompass the entirety of Europe, has expanded military partnerships throughout the world and has waged war on three continents.

In 2006 Kurt Volker, at the time with the State Department and two years afterwards U.S. ambassador to NATO, boasted that the year before NATO had been “engaged in eight simultaneous operations on four continents.”

Two years later the State Department’s Daniel Fried told the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Europe:

“When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, NATO was an Alliance of 16 members and no partners. Today, NATO has 26 members – with 2 new invitees, prospective membership for others, and over 20 partners in Europe and Eurasia, seven in the Mediterranean, four in the Persian Gulf, and others from around the world.”

Although then-Secretary of State James Baker had assured Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the time of German reunification in 1990 that NATO would not be moved one inch eastward, the very act of merger occurring as it did led to the German Democratic Republic being absorbed not only into the Federal Republic but NATO and hence the latter immediately moving east to the borders of Poland and Czechoslovakia and closer to that of the Soviet Union.

The two invited nations Fried mentioned above are Albania and Croatia, which became full members of the military bloc in 2009, completing a decade of expansion that saw NATO membership grow by 75 percent from 16 to 28. NATO expansion to the east has provided the Pentagon and its Western allies with air bases and other military facilities in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania for wars to the east and south.

Macedonia, which would also have been absorbed in 2009 except for the name dispute with NATO member Greece, is now in a new category of nations being groomed for full NATO membership the alliance refers to as aspirant countries. The others currently are Bosnia, Georgia and Montenegro.

With the Partnership for Peace program that was used to promote twelve new Eastern European into NATO between 1999 and 2009 – every non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact and three former Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) – the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and, as of last year, the newly formed Partners Across the Globe (whose initial members are Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea), NATO members and partners number at least 70 nations, well over a third of those in the world.

In January of 2012 a meeting of NATO’s Military Committee Chiefs of Defense Staff was conducted with top military representatives of 67 nations. The Partners Across the Globe and longer-standing military partnerships are slated to grow in all parts of the world. Among the more than 50 nations that have provided NATO with troop contingents for the war in South Asia are additional Asia-Pacific states not covered by other international NATO partnership formats like the Partnership for Peace (22 nations in Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia), the Mediterranean Dialogue (seven nations in North Africa and the Middle East, with Libya to be the eighth) and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, which targets the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).

Those Asian states – Malaysia, Singapore and Tonga – are likely the next candidates for the new global partnership, as are Latin American troop providers like El Salvador and Colombia. The inclusion of the last-named marks the expansion of NATO, through memberships and partnerships, to all six inhabited continents.

Iraq and Yemen are likely prospects for inclusion in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. Mediterranean Dialogue members Jordan and Morocco applied for membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council (which is composed of the Arab world’s other six monarchies) during NATO’s war against Libya in 2011, for which Gulf Cooperation Council and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative members Qatar and the United Arab Emirates supplied dozens of warplanes.

If the West succeeds in effecting the overthrow of the Syrian government, Syria and Lebanon will be targeted for membership in NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue. (As will Palestine if and when it is recognized by the United Nations.) With the new administration in Cyprus confirming its intention to immediately join the Partnership for Peace, every nation in the Mediterranean Sea Basin will be a NATO member and partner. The integration of Cyprus will also complete the process of recruiting every European nation (excluding mini-states Andorra, Lichtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican) into the NATO orbit.

In the past three years there also has been discussion about NATO establishing a collective partnership arrangement, which could include individual partnerships as well, with the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which are, in addition to Malaysia and Singapore, mentioned above, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Similar efforts have been made by NATO to forge a collective partnership with the 54-member African Union. All African nations are members of the African Union except for Morocco and the fledgling state of South Sudan. All African countries except Egypt are in the area of responsibility of U.S. Africa Command, which before achieving full operational capacity in 2008 was created and developed by U.S. European Command, whose top military commander is simultaneously that of NATO.

The current NATO secretary general has bruited the intention to cultivate formal relations with India and China, likely to be based on the bilateral NATO-Russia Council model. There has been discussion in recent years, including an explicit call by a Portuguese foreign minister for precisely such an initiative, for NATO to expand into the South Atlantic as well by building military partnerships with countries like Brazil and South Africa. (Six warships with the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 held exercises with the South African navy in 2007 in the course of circumnavigating the African continent. Also in that year the same NATO naval force conducted operations in the Caribbean, the first time alliance warships entered that sea.)

In conjunction with the U.S., NATO is striving to assemble the remnants of defunct or dormant Cold War-era military blocs in the Asia-Pacific region, all modeled after NATO itself – the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Security Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America (ANZUS) – to replicate in the east against China what NATO expansion has accomplished in Europe over the past 14 years in relation to Russia: its exclusion, isolation and encirclement by military bases, naval forces and interceptor missile installations.

As the Pentagon and NATO are implementing plans to deploy land-based interceptor missiles in Romania and Poland and sea-based equivalents on guided missile warships in, first, the Mediterranean and plausibly afterward in the Black, Baltic and Norwegian Seas, so the U.S. has recruited Japan, South Korea and Australia into its global sea- and land-based missile shield grid, with a recent report indicating the Pentagon plans to add the Philippines to the list with the deployment there of an Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance interceptor missile mobile system of the sort already stationed in Japan, Israel and Turkey.

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and other NATO leaders routinely assert that the European Phased Adaptive Approach missile system is aimed not only against Iran but North Korea – and Syria. In April of this year Rasmussen became the first NATO secretary general to visit South Korea. Days earlier his second-in-command, Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, spoke of the possibility of invoking NATO’s Article 5 mutual military assistance clause against North Korea.

Since 1999 the North Atlantic bloc has waged air and ground wars in Europe (Yugoslavia) , Asia (Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan) and Africa (Libya), as well as running comprehensive naval surveillance, interdiction, boarding and assault operations in the Mediterranean Sea (Active Endeavor) and in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean (Ocean Shield) and airlift operations for African troops into the Darfur region of western Sudan and into war-torn Somalia.

Post-Cold War NATO has repeatedly and without disguise identified its purview and its area of operations to be international in scope, and over the past 22 years its efforts to achieve that objective have steadily accelerated to the point where the military alliance is well poised to supplant the United Nations as the main, indeed the exclusive, arbiter of conflicts not only between but within nations throughout the world. A U.S.-dominated armed bloc which includes three nuclear powers and accounts for an estimated 70 percent of global military spending has expanded deployments, operations and partnerships around the planet.

Four years ago Hans von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, wrote a scathing denunciation called The United Nations and NATO: Which security and for whom? for a Swiss journal in which, in a section called “21st century NATO incompatible with UN Charter,” he stated:

“In 1999, NATO acknowledged that it was seeking to orient itself according to a new fundamental strategic concept. From a narrow military defense alliance it was to become a broad-based alliance for the protection of the vital resources needs of its members. Besides the defense of member states’ borders, it set itself new purposes such as assured access to energy sources and the right to intervene in ‘movements of large numbers of persons’ and in conflicts far from the boarders of NATO countries. The readiness of the new alliance to include other countries, particularly those that had previously been part of the Soviet Union, shows how the character of this military alliance has altered.”

The United Nations monopoly of the use of force, especially as specified in Article 51 of the Charter, was no longer accepted according to the 1999 NATO doctrine.

“NATO’s territorial scope, until then limited to the Euro-Atlantic region, was expanded by its member to encompass the whole world in keeping with a strategic context that was global in its sweep.”

For the past 18 years NATO has been attempting to supersede and ultimately replace the United Nations, as von Sponeck warned, initially by promoting itself as the military wing of the UN by leading multinational military forces under post-conflict mandates in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia – 60,000 troops in the first and 50,000 in the second case at peak strength. (The first two missions followed, respectively, a NATO bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serb Republic and 78-day air war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to be sure.) A comparable situation existed in Iraq, with NATO supporting the foreign occupation of the nation from 2004-2011. In fact all the post-Cold War NATO inductees – Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – were compelled to supply troops for Iraq as proof of their loyalty to NATO before and shortly after their accession.

And for Afghanistan. But unlike the NATO missions in the above former Yugoslav territories, that in Afghanistan was to an active war zone, constituting NATO’s first ground war and first war outside Europe.

After the military alliance took over the International Security Assistance Force, it came to command almost all of the 152,000 foreign troops in the nation and soldiers from over 50 Troop Contributing Nations (the official designation) . Armed forces from that many nations had never before fought in one war, much less under a single command and in one nation.

Those nations are:

All 28 current NATO members: The U.S., Albania, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.

Partnership for Peace adjuncts: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Others: Australia (Partners Across the Globe), Bahrain (Istanbul Cooperation Initiative), El Salvador, Jordan (Mediterranean Dialogue), Malaysia, Mongolia (Partners Across the Globe), New Zealand (Partners Across the Globe), Singapore, South Korea (Partners Across the Globe), Tonga and the United Arab Emirates (Istanbul Cooperation Initiative).

Several additional nations supplied military and security personnel to serve under NATO command in Afghanistan without being formal Troop Contributing Nations such as Colombia, Egypt (Mediterranean Dialogue), Japan (Partners Across the Globe), Moldova (Partnership for Peace) and no doubt others. Efforts were made by the U.S. and NATO to secure troop contributions from such nations as Bangladesh and Kazakhstan.

The governments and militaries of Afghanistan itself and neighboring Pakistan are linked to NATO under the Afghanistan- Pakistan- International Security Assistance Force Tripartite Commission.

NATO has air and other military bases in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Those three nations have also been used by NATO as part of the Northern Distribution Network and other transit routes that include as well Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Iraq, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, etc.

The war in Afghanistan, the longest in the nation’s history as well as in that of the U.S., has supplied NATO with an almost 12-year opportunity to consolidate an international military network and to develop the operational and command integration of the armed forces of almost 60 nations. This is the global NATO that among others the Obama administration’s first ambassador to the alliance, Ivo Daalder, has openly touted under that exact name since the beginning of this century.

Many NATO members and partners, particularly former Soviet federal republics in the Baltic Sea region and in the South Caucasus, have used the Afghan war to gain combat experience for their armed forces to be used in conflicts in their own neighborhoods: Georgia, for example, in preparing for any resumption of armed conflict with South Ossetia and Russia such as occurred in August 2008.

Just as NATO has followed the U.S. into the Balkans and Afghanistan, into the global interceptor missile system and so-called energy security (in fact energy war) initiatives, so it has joined Washington in the new scramble in the Arctic Ocean, cyber warfare operations and the attempt to command the world’s strategic shipping lanes and choke points.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, its name now archaic as most of its members and all of its dozens of partners do not border the Atlantic Ocean, north or south, is well advanced in its U.S.-crafted mission to expand into history’s largest and first international military bloc and an unprecedented threat to world peace.

The War on Libya: A Grand Display of NATO’s Lynch Mob Mentality

2013-04-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

The media has gone very quiet on Libya of late; clearly, liberal imperialists don’t like to dwell on their crimes. This is not surprising. The modus operandi of the humanitarian imperialist is not one of informed reflection, but only permanent outrage against leaders of the global South; besides, in the topsy-turvy world of liberal interventionism, the ‘failureto act’ is the only crime of which the West is capable. As Forte puts it, their moral code holds that “If we do not act, we should be held responsible for the actions of others. When we do act, we should never be held responsible for our own actions.”

With Gaddafi dead, the hunt is on for a new hate figure on whom to spew venom (Assad, Jong-Un); far more satisfying than actually evaluating our own role in the creation of human misery. This is the colonial mentality of the liberal lynch mob.

For the governments that lead west into war, of course, it makes perfect sense that they do not stop to look back at the last invasion before impatiently demanding the next one – if they realised, for example, that the 1999 bombing of Serbia (the textbook ‘humanitarian intervention’) actually facilitated the ethnic cleansing of

Kosovo that it was supposedly designed to prevent, west might not be so ready to demand the same treatment for every other state that falls short of their illusory ideals.

Professor Maximilian Forte a professor of social anthropology in Montreal, much of his writing and research in recent years has been dedicated to the new imperialism, and especially its ‘humanitarian’ cover. He was amongst the first to really expose violent racism within the Libyan insurrection, and its role in facilitating NATO’s goals in Africa, and has provided consistently excellent analyses of the media coverage surrounding the conflict.

He wrote a book through his book’s accomplishments its comprehensive demolition of the war’s supposed justifications. Forte shows us that there was no ‘mass rape’ committed by ‘Gaddafi forces’, as alleged by Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Luis Ocampo and others at the time, but later refuted by Amnesty International, the UN and even the US army itself.

Despite hysterical media reports, there was no evidence of aerial bombing of protesters, as even CIA chief Robert Gates admitted. Gaddafi had no massacre planned for Benghazi, as had been loudly proclaimed by the leaders of Britain, France and the USA: the Libyan government forces had not carried out massacres against civilian populations in any of the other towns they recaptured from the rebels, and nor had Gaddafi threatened to do so in Benghazi; in a speech that was almost universally misreported in the Western media, he promised no mercy for those who had taken up arms against the government, whilst offering amnesty for those who ‘threw their weapons away’, and at no point threatening reprisals against civilians.

When the NATO invasion began, French jets actually bombed a small retreating column of Libyan armour on the outskirts of Benghazi, comprising 14 tanks, 20 armoured personnel carriers, and a few trucks and ambulances – nothing like enough to carry out a ‘genocide’ against an entire city, as had been claimed.

Indeed, the whole image of ‘peaceful protesters being massacred’ was turning reality on its head. In fact, Forte notes, rebels “torched police stations, broke into the compounds of security services, attacked government offices and torched vehicles” from the very start, to which the authorities responded with “tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets – very similar to methods frequently used in Western nations against far more peaceful protests that lacked the element of sedition”. Only once the rebels had proceeded to occupy the Benghazi army barracks, loot its weapons, and start using them against government forces did things begin to escalate.

Myth of the Dark Heart

But the most pernicious of the lies that facilitated the Libyan war was the myth of the ‘African mercenary’. Racist pogroms, Forte argues, were characteristic of the Libyan rebellion from its very inception, when 50 sub-Saharan African migrants were burnt alive in Al-Bayda on the second day of the insurgency. An Amnesty International report from September 2011 made it clear that this was no isolated incident: “When al-Bayda, Beghazi, Derna, Misrata and other cities first fell under the control of the NTC in February, anti-Gaddafi forces carried out house raids, killing and other violent attacks” against sub-Saharan Africans and black Libyans, and “what we are seeing in western Libya is a very similar pattern to what we have seen in Benghazi and Misrata after those cities fell to the rebels” – arbitrary detention, torture and execution of black people.

The ‘African mercenary’ myth was thus created to justify these pogroms, as the Western media near-universally referred to their victims as ‘mercenaries’ – or ‘alleged mercenaries’ in the more circumspect and highbrow outlets – and thus as aggressors and legitimate targets. The myth was completely discredited by both Amnesty International – whose exasperated researcher told a TV interviewer that “We examined this issue in depth and found no evidence: the rebels spread these rumors everywhere [with] terrible consequences for African guest workers” – and by a UN investigation team, who drew similar conclusions – but not until both organisations had already helped perpetuate the lie themselves.

That liberal humanitarians would launch a war of aggression in order to facilitate racist massacres is not as ironic as it might at first seem. Forte writes that “if this was humanitarianism, it could only be so by disqualifying Africans as members of humanity.” But such disqualification has been a systematic practice of liberalism from the days of John Locke, through the US war of independence and into the age of nineteenth century imperialism and beyond.

Indeed, Forte argues that the barely-veiled “racial fear of mean African bogeymen swamping Libya like zombies” implicit in the ‘African mercenary’ story, was uniquely and precisely formulated to tap into a rich historical vein of European fantasies about plagues of black mobs. That the myth gained so much traction despite zero evidence, says Forte, “tells a great deal about the role of racial prejudice and propaganda in mobilizing public opinion in the West and organizing international relations”.

Yet the racism of the rebel fighters was not only useful for mobilising European public opinion – it also played a strategic function, as far as NATO planners were concerned. By bringing to power a virulently anti-black government, the West has ensured that Libya’s trajectory as a pan-African state has been brought to a violent end, and that its oil wealth will no longer be used for African development. As Forte succinctly put it, “the goal of US military intervention was to disrupt an emerging pattern of independence and a network of collaboration within Africa that would facilitate increased African self-reliance. This is at odds with the geostrategic and political economic ambitions of extra-continental European powers, namely the US”.

A large part of the book is dedicated to outlining Libya’s role in the creation of the African Union, and its subsequent moves to unify Africa at the economic, political and military levels. This included the investment of billions of petrodollars in industrial development across the continent, the creation of an African communications satellite, and massive financial contributions towards the African Development Bank and the African Monetary Fund – institutions designed specifically to challenge the hegemony of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Gaddafi, Forte argues, was passionate about using Libyan oil money to help Africa industrialise and “add value” to its export materials, moving it away from its prescribed role in the global economy as a supplier of cheap raw materials.

A US-led Scramble for Africa

This was a threat to Western financial and corporate control of African economies, and combined with the rise of Chinese investment, was considered a strategic obstacle to Western domination that had to be removed. As Forte put it, “The US, France and the UK could not afford to see allies that they had cultivated, if not installed in power, being slowly pulled from their orbits by Libya, China and other powers”.

The African Oil Policy initiative Group – a high level US Committee comprising members of Congress, military officers and energy industry lobbyists – noted in 2002 the growing dependence of the US on African oil, and recommended a “new and vigorous focus on US military cooperation in sub-Saharan Africa, to include design of a sub-unified command structure which could produce significant dividends in the protection of US investments”. They noted that “failure to address the issue of focusing and maximizing US diplomatic and military command organization...could...act as an inadvertent incentive for US rivals such as China [and] adversaries such as Libya”. In other words, with their economic grip on the continent facing serious challenge, the Western world would increasingly have to rely on aggressive militarism in order to maintain its interests.

The recommendations of the committee would be implemented in 2006 with the creation of AFRICOM – the US army’s African Command. AFRICOM was conceived as a sort of ‘School of the Americas’ for Africa, designed to train African armies for use as proxy forces for maintaining Western control, with the 2010 US National Security Strategy specifically naming the African Union as one of the regional organisations it sought to co-opt.

Libya, however, proved most uncooperative. The leaked US diplomatic cables make it very clear that Libya was viewed by the US as THE main obstacle to establishing a full muscular US military presence on the African continent, regularly highlighting its “opposition” and “obstruction” to AFRICOM. With Gaddafi still a respected voice within the AU, having served as its elected Chairman in 2009, he wielded significant influence, and used this to spearhead opposition to what he considered the neocolonial aims of the

AFRICOM initiative.

Meanwhile, Chinese investment in Africa was growing rapidly, having grown from $6 billion in 1999 to $90 billion ten years later, displacing the US as the continent’s largest trading partner. The need for a US military presence to cling on to the West’s declining influence in Africa was growing ever more urgent. But Africa was not playing ball – and Gaddafi was (rightly) seen as leading the charge.

Fast forward to 2012, and US General Carter Ham, head of AFRICOM, was able to claim that “the conduct of military operations in Libya did afford now the opportunity to establish a military to military relationship with Libya, which did not previously exist”. He went on to suggest that a US base would be established in the country (Gaddafi having expelled both the US and British bases shortly after coming to power in 1969), saying that some “assistance” would probably be necessary, in the form of a “military presence”. President Obama wasted no time in announcing the deployment of soldiers to four more African countries within weeks of the fall of Tripoli, and AFRICOM announced an unprecedented 14 joint military exercises in Africa for the following year.

A sign of things to come

Forte argues that NATO’s attack had not only destroyed a powerful force for unity and independence in Africa, and a huge obstacle to Western military penetration of the continent, but it had also created the perfect conditions to justify further invasions. The US had previously attempted to argue that its military presence was required in North Africa in order to fight against Al Qaeda; indeed, it had set up the Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Programme to this end. But as Muattasim Gaddafi had explained to Hilary Clinton in Washington in 2009, the programme had been rendered redundant by the existing, and highly effective, security strategy of CEN-SAD (the Libyan-led Community of Sahel and Saharan states) and the North African Standby Force.

Like a classic protection racket, however, the British, US and French decided that if their protection wasn’t needed, then they would have to create a need for it. The destruction of Libya tore the heart out of the North African security system, flooded the region with weapons and turned Libya into an ungoverned safe haven for violent militias. Now the resulting – and entirely predictable – instability has spread to Mali, the West are using it as an excuse for another war and occupation. In a prescient warning (the book was published before France’s recent invasion of Mali), Forte wrote that “intervention begets intervention. More intervention is needed to solve the problems caused by intervention.”

The book is also very strong in exposing the ideology of the ‘human rights industry’ and its role in bringing about the Libyan war. Western liberal humanitarianism, argues Forte, “can only function by first directly or indirectly creating the suffering of others, and by then seeing every hand as an outstretched hand, pleading or welcoming”.

Forte goes on to expose the role of groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who helped perpetuate some of the worst lies about what was happening in Libya, such as the fictitious ‘African mercenaries’ and ‘mass rape’, and who in the case of Amnesty, “mere days into the uprising and well before it had a chance to ascertain, corroborate or confirm any facts on the ground...began launching public accusations against Libya, the African Union and the UNSC for failing to take action”. By calling for an assets freeze on Libya and an arms embargo (“and more actions with each passing day”), Amnesty “thus effectively made itself a party to the conflict”; it had become part of the propaganda war and mythmaking that was designed to facilitate the invasion.

This should not be surprising given Amnesty’s history. Forte helpfully recalls that their promotion of the infamous “incubator babies” myth that justified the Iraq war of 1991 was later singled out by several US Senators as having influenced their decision to vote for the attack. In the event, the Senate vote was passed by a majority of just six. The 1991 war devastated Iraq, which had barely recovered from the Iran-Iraq war, killing well over 100,000 people, as well as hundreds of thousands more from the diseases that ravaged the country following the deliberate destruction of its water and sewerage systems.

So it should be little surprise that Suzanne Nossel, a State Department official on Hilary Clinton’s team, was made Executive Director of Amnesty-USA in November 2011. In her State Department job, Nossell had played a key role drawing up the UN Human Rights Council resolution against Libya that ultimately formed the basis for Security Council Resolution 1973 that led to the aggression.

Forte also discusses the role of Bouchuiguir, the ‘human rights activist’ who emerges as the Libyan ‘Curveball’. Curveball was the Iraqi ‘source’ who came up with the lies about Saddam’s nonexistent ‘mobile chemical weapons factories’ that were used to justify the 2003 Iraq war. Likewise, Bouchuiguir’s wildly inflated casualty figures provided the raw material for the hysterical UNHRC resolutions against Libya that set the ball for war rolling. He later admitted on camera that there was no evidence for his claims – but not before 70 NGOs had signed a petition ‘demanding action’ in response to them.

Much has been written elsewhere about the ‘neo-cons’ who became (rightly) hated for their brutally idiotic conceptions of social change. But, as Forte’s book shows, the liberal humanitarians are perhaps even more contemptible; after all, at least the neo-cons never claimed to be kind, or even interested in anything other than their own self-interest. Yet the liberal humanitarians seem – or at least claim – to be driven by some kind of higher purpose, which makes their constant calls for wars of aggression even more repulsive. Forte puts this brilliantly:

“The vision of our humanity that liberal imperialists entertain is one which constructs us as shrieking sacks of emotion. This is the elites’ anthropology, one that views us as bags of nerve and muscle: throbbing with outrage, contracting with every story of ‘incubator babies’, bulging up with animus at the arrest of Gay Girl in Damascus, recoiling at the sound of Viagra-fuelled mass rape. (RJ what do you say over this usage of viagra fuelled?? :P) From mass hysteria in twitter to hundreds of thousands signing an online Avaaz petition calling for bombing Libya in the name of human rights, we become nerves of mass reaction. We scream for action via ‘social media’, thumbs furiously in action on our ‘smart’ phones. (RJ you said two days ago for smart phone, look west is also empasizing on the same :P) Then again, our “action” merely consists of asking the supremely endowed military establishment to act in our name.” This anthropology is of course “accompanied by NATO’s implicit sociology: societies can be remade through a steady course of high altitude bombings and drone strikes.”

The July 2012 elections in Libya, their very existence trumpeted in Western media as immediately vindicating every act of butchery the war brought about – regardless of whether the parliament being elected was likely to wield any actual influence over the country – saw fewer than half the eligible voting population take part. Even more intriguing were the results of a survey carried out in Libya by Oxford Research International that found that only 13% of Libyans said they wanted democracy within a year’s time, and only 25% within five years.

Meanwhile, the new authorities set about persecuting their opponents, real and imagined. The town of Tawergha was emptied of its entire population of around 20,000 black Libyans after militias from Misrata began systematically torching every home and business in the town, with the support of the central government. Former residents now reside in refugee camps where they continue to be hunted down and killed, or in arbitrary detention in makeshift prisons. Candidacy for elections is barred to: workers (a professional qualification is needed); anyone who ever worked in any level of government between 1969 and 2011 (unless they could demonstrate “early and clear” support for the insurrection); anyone with academic study involving Gaddafi’s Green book; and anyone who ever received any monetary benefit from Gaddafi.

A constitutional lawyer noted these restrictions would disqualify three quarters of the Libyan population. Other new laws banned the spreading of “news reports, rumours or propaganda” that could “cause any damage to the state”, with penalties of up to life in prison; and prison for anyone spreading information that “could weaken the citizens’ morale” or for anyone who “attacks the February 17 revolution, denigrates Islam, the authority of the state or its institutions”.

This is the new Libya for which the human rights imperialists and their allies lobbied, killed and tortured so hard. “The next time empire comes knocking in the name of human rights”, concludes Forte, “please be found standing idly by”.

Forte’s book is a must-read for anyone seriously (RJ Tussi vi lazmi parho) interested in understanding the motives and consequences of the West’s onslaught against Libya and African development.

The Boston Marathon Tragedy Used as a Pretext To Extend the “Global War on Terrorism”

2013-04-25T06:49:00.002-07:00

In a 2011 interview for an Australian TV channel, US Republican Senator John McCain talked about Islamic extremism ‘spreading’ if left unchecked by military intervention in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In the same interview, he spoke of the US having held fast in Iraq and having ‘succeeded’ there. He stated that ‘we’ must do the same in Afghanistan because ‘we’ are succeeding there too. In the warped world of neo-con mouthpieces like McCain, the ongoing carnage and turmoil that US-led criminality has caused in the two countries in question equates with ‘success’.

Given the problems at home, it comes as little surprise that US public support for militarism abroad has been waning for some time. McCain is fully aware of this. His comments were little more than an attempt to hoodwink the public into continuing to support the US’s war of global terror because he knows that people have other things on their minds, such as housing foreclosures, the outsourcing of jobs and livelihoods, increasing impoverishment, the crackdown on civil liberties and the slaughter of young (often poor) men who fight wars that have no end in sight. The public is also becoming increasingly aware that over half of government spending goes on the military when it could be better spent in other areas.

In 2006, former US military commander and CIA boss General Petraeus said the US strategy is to conduct a war of perceptions continuously through the news media. People like McCain are the foot soldiers in such a war and hope that the public mindset can be manipulated with propaganda about US national security interests, perceived military successes and fear about Islamic extremism.

No doubt both Petraeus and McCain have taken their cue from US commentator Walter Lippmann who in the 1920s said that ‘responsible men’ make decisions and had to be protected from the ‘bewildered herd’. The public. Lippman believed that the public should be subdued, obedient and distracted from what is really happening and should be admiring with awe the leaders who save them from destruction and provide peace. The words of Lippman might have been ringing loud and clear in the minds of many observers as people came onto the streets of Boston to celebrate and chant “USA!USA!” after the authorities had suspended civil liberties and effectively implemented Martial Law in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon explosions. Saved from destruction and admiring their leaders with awe!

After a decade of creeping ‘war fatigue’ among the public, the recent bomb blasts in Boston comes as a timely and convenient reminder to US citizens that the ‘war on terror’ must be maintained. What better than a terrible short, sharp shock in Boston to sleep-walk them back towards this version of ‘reality’?

Much has been written about the two men who are allegedly responsible for the attack in Boston. The US media has gone out of its way to speculate on links with Chechnya and even Iran. Despite no proof of Iranian involvement, it’s always a good thing to throw the latest US designated bogeyman into the mix in order to demonise it and keep the public’s mind focused and supportive of continued action against it.

With all the talk of extremist Islamic terror and enemies of the US who may have been behind the attack, the mainstream media has ignored the role of the US government itself when it comes to terror attacks within the US. Such a task has been left to analysts such as Michael German and James Corbett, who have written on how FBI sting operations make jihadists out of gullible Muslims and hapless malcontents (8)(9). They document many examples of how the FBI has infiltrated, nurtured and encouraged rag tag groups to devise terror plots on US soil. It is therefore of interest that the FBI had also been monitoring the two Boston bomb suspects for a number of years.

Without the FBI, many half baked ‘terror plots’ against the US on its own soil might never have existed at all. In true Lippman-esque style, however, the publicity surrounding such schemes and the media celebration of ‘heroic’ government agencies foiling them serve to create or strengthen public perceptions about an ongoing threat in order to keep the public on side. Indeed, in the wake of the Boston bombings the influential Council of Foreign Relations has voiced the opinion that the event once again raises the specter of terrorism on US soil, thereby highlighting the vulnerabilities of a free and open society.

Such statements and the mainstream media, with all its wild speculations and accusations concerning events in Boston, act to condition the public to continue to support the ‘war on terror’. And that involves the notion that the US is under constant threat at home and abroad therefore civil liberties must be curtailed (in the name of a ‘free and open society’!) in order to prevent terror. It also involves the notion that imperialist wars thinly disguised as a global war on terror must be continued.

Regardless of who is ultimately responsible for the attack in Boston, whether it was individuals acting alone or whether they were being guided by other players, the attack has served to propagate the myth about the need for ongoing US militarism and has probably conveniently served to counter waning public support for it.

GENERAL ELECTIONS PAKISTAN-2013: RENDEZVOUS WITH MONSTER OR MESSIAH

2013-02-23T12:23:00.004-08:00

Seldom has a country gone through an agonising period of trial and tribulation more severely than Pakistan for last about a decade and half. Fall of the dictator in March 2008 ordinarily should have ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity at the dawn of democracy but the dream remained elusive. It was not because of lack of virtues that democracy presents to any nation but the rulers, instead of nurturing it carefully were hell bent to ensure that it gasps under the weight of their malignant follies.

The safety chutes, democracy affords to circumvent governance deadlocks, were employed by the ruling Pakistan People Party (PPP), instead as the means to lure in political support for survival from the coalition parties, ‘Awami National Party’ (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League, Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) and ‘Mutahida Qaumi Movement’ (MQM), as criminal trade off. Now the state is bracing up for general elections by midyear.

All the ruling coalition partners have extremely tainted record. Survival being the most sought for pursuit, the government has been obliged to over look massive corruption, heinous crimes and rampant nepotism committed by their party heavy weights, though some were clearly adjudicated with specific awards by the judiciary but were rubbed on the toe. Two extremes are interesting as well as deplorable. First, never ever Pakistan, since independence in 1947, has had an honest and courageous judiciary as it has now under the auspices of Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan. Secondly, never ever any government mocked and blatantly defied judiciary verdicts as did President Asif Ali Zardari and his administration, which carries the heaviest political baggage of questions that it has to answer at certain point of time, some lethal one.

More Questions than Answers

The current five years tenure is expiring in mid March and the constitutional provision makes it mandatory to hold general elections within 90 days of dissolution of the government under an independent election commission. But questions are lurking in every sane mind whether elections would engulf us as a monster or would prove as panacea for all rampant ills. The pointers are that elections would result in emergence of political alliance that would foster the corrupt and criminal gridlock of the rulers yet again for the coming term. Even if the ruling coalition is knocked out through the sagacity of voters, the second layer of possible coalition among Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam,Fazal (JUI-F) happens to surface as contender with some other minor parties’ support, would mean yet another futile alternative as both parties have dubious record of performance. JUI (F) remained an ally of the dictator to lend him crucial support all along his rule of tyranny in tandem with PML(Q) and PML (N) governs the largest province of Punjab, almost half of Pakistan if population is taken into account. Its performance has the only lustre of presenting a Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, who can sob on the stage, lamenting about common man suffering at the hands of corruption mafia. Other than occasional emotional outburst, he did nothing to prevent his bureaucracy from exploiting poor people lest he might lose their ‘help’ during general elections where it always plays unseen role. In other words, he proved himself during the entire tenure of about five years as a magician who always criticised the ruling parties at the federation incessantly to obfuscate his failings and attain political mileage against them.

Democracy Perverted by Politicians But Some Parties are Vibrant

The civilised world would be spell bound after knowing that democracy has seen the worst degree of perversion in Pakistan. The political parties like PML(N), PPP, MQM, PML(Q), ANP and JUI(F) have become single family or person’s maid. Their leaders boast around in royal regalia who either never accept intra party elections or concede to the extent of ‘mock’ exercise with precondition that their dynastic hold would not be challenged, ever since these parties were founded. Dissenters, if any are ruthlessly eliminated. Where nature came to rescue the democracy, the party reacted shamefully by retaining the leadership within the family by fielding a son or a daughter in the arena. While the world takes pleasure from the concept of universal acceptance of democracy as the just system to govern the nation states, our dynasties are well and safe under royals with a small badge of ‘democracy’ displayed off and on for appeasing the West. Since 1971, the country has been, for the same reason, either under PPP or PML(N) rule and when these two parties blundered, the vacuum was filled by Martial Law.

There are political parties which have the support at grassroots level like Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by famous cricketer turned philanthropist/politician, Imran Khan or the one led by Munawar Hassan, Jamat-e-Islami, (JI) considered as balanced Islamic party where discipline, honesty and patriotism reside and thus they are in position to deliver. Their success, however, is contingent upon big ‘if’ and that is the conduct of fair and free elections. Unfortunately, independent election commission which has not matured as yet in its role has been foxed already by the ruling elites. The government had devised several modes to fool people and twist the laws to their convenience by handing down billions of grants to their party legislators/cronies in the name of development schemes of the public concern. To make the matter worse, there is almost no accountability of such funds that are consumed on production of false documents because the major chunks of money-grants go to legislators. In other words, the ruling parties have purchased their vote bank before the constitution of care taker government for overseeing impartial conduct of elections and transition of power. Even if the care takers could claim honest conduct of general elections later on, they may be justified but tragedy they might know is that the elections had already been rigged before they stepped in. Now the dilemma which cannot be prevented and emanates from the fear of guilt that haunts at least three parties very clearly and sadly they are the ones ruling the roost. PPP, PML-Q and MQM have huge stock of criminal cases against them. If not voted back to power, which is least likely despite their clever manoeuvres, they would prevent/hinder smooth transition of power under fabricated pretexts. Stoking law and order situation in province of Sind where they have appeal on regional/ethnic basis is a dangerous option they would resort to. PPP, MQM and ANP maintain potent militant wings that are an open secret by now. When such scenario is a reality on the horizon, coupled with ongoing play of fissures getting deeper every day, is there any justification of holding general elections.

Emerging Paradigm of Geo-Political Environments

Casting look in wider perspective, political and economic landscape of the country is extremely distorted. While the government managed to put up a fake democratic face to the international community, internally its performance has been horribly pathetic and the world knows it. According to Transparency International (TI) report, the government has presided over 8000 billion rupees ($ 80 billion) corruption during its tenure. In fact some local sources have been quoting much more figures with credibility hard to believe. In the mean time, profit churning public organizations like Pakistan International Airline, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Steel Mills, WAPDA and Tourism Corporation etc have gone pauper. Law and order situation throughout Pakistan is in shambles. Corrupt practices have permeated to every layer of governance. Common man, while rupee devalued 100 percent against US dollar since 2008, is aghast to see apathy meted out to him. Inflation is sky high.

There is growing unrest in Baluchistan, Sind (Karachi), Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and Gilgit-Baltistan province. War on terror is taking heavy toll on country’s meagre resources. Sectarian and ethnic killings by mushrooming militant groups have hung the country’s fate by a fragile thread. Writ of the state is precarious, options narrow and leadership deficit monumental. Decade long war in Afghanistan has sucked in Pakistan to the limit from the western border. As if it was not enough, hostilities simmer on the eastern borders along the Line of Control (LOC) with India as well. A major chunk of over a million-strong Indian Army is brutalising Kashmiris across LOC in full view of civilised world for decades. Geo-political expediencies have quelled the ethics of the international standard bearers of the humane values to prevent the subjugation and human carnage.

Pakistan Army, an institution held in high esteem by people at large, faces the spectre of war on multiple fronts including the one that has nuclear connotation in the fold---and then election are just around the corner. Pakistani nation has the potential to brave these scenarios but shudders to perceive that the general elections, instead of heralding any significant democratic change would mean, at best, status quo with increased violence and added dent to national unity. This is scary appreciation and no one wants to remain under the yolk of corrupt rulers who have trashed the rule of law or face trauma of impending civil war, though in lesser intensity it has been already unleashed. In Pakistani brand of democracy, the ruling elite and their cronies when persuaded to abide by rule of law by the courts, react as if an act of sacrilege has been committed to ditch their honour. The way government has stood for five years suggests that name of democracy was perverted without shame. No party ever showed the guts to admit failures and vacate the power seat for other party that could manage the affairs rather wisely or seek early elections. In the meantime, rot compounded when billions of rupees corruption was consummated by those who were supposed to prevent it. Within the ruling elites, there is hardly any leader who, given the chance, could resist temptation of massive illicit gains. Pakistan’s security forces are managing the national security dilemma in a chivalrous ways but for the duration of election campaign and actual conduct, need to maintain security would not be confined to the polling booths only to protect the voters but the entire population against any threat of terror. In other words, defence forces shall by thoroughly committed, draining thus their domination of war zones from the threatened eastern as well as western borders. Should there be confluence of national and international conspiracies to destabilise Pakistan, there would not be more opportune time than the occasion of general elections to implement it. Instability in Pakistan means geostrategic threat of wider dimensions. Pakistan has its borders contiguous to Iran, Afghanistan, China, India and has a long coastal stretch of Arabian Sea. Taking the regional situation into account and changing paradigms of geo-politics coupled with nuclear capabilities of the regional powers; soon dimensions of threat become perceivable, connecting with the distant actors also.

Possible Way-out Strategy

Conversely, our major political parties have failed to show flare for the emancipation of masses except when sloganeering from the stage to woo their vote bank. Most of them are power hungry, would compromise to any extent and cling to each other to evade worthwhile accountability. Does the nation see any promise? In all probability, elections would be ruinous exercise. What could be the way-out strategy to steer the country away from crises?

As an alternative, plant a national government of a few dozen honest people, like Imran Khan, Dr. AQ Khan, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Maulana Munawar Hassan etc with limited years mandate to achieve national coherence, retrieve hundreds of billions of tax payers’ money from the fraudsters, flush out rogue elements and criminals, disregard to any other consideration, denying them the capability to buy every vote and then go for the luxury of general elections supported by judiciary and Army. Conversely, under the obtaining geo-political environments, election results would stoke divisive forces more than lending any balming effect to our national unity. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, ‘Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choices are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education’. Let us heed to the time-tested dogma. The proposition becomes meaningful by postponing the elections and educating the masses about inevitability of clearing the garbage first that the dictator and the ‘democratic’ government have heaped during last 13 years. ‘Seize the moment’ to recognise the vagaries of time and resort to measures that would steer Pakistan through internal turmoil intact.

This post is written by Brig (Retd) Dr. Muhammad Aslam Khan Niazi.

GAYARI SECTOR TRAGEDY IN SIACHEN AND RESCUE OPERATION

2012-04-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Although Siachen means land of wild roses but in reality this place is barren and icy cold. It has minus 14 to 34 degree temperature in summer and minus 50 in winter season and at minus fifty temperature everything gets collapsed. It was independent place till 1984, and it was not easy to encroach at this place. In April 1984

India

suddenly encroached at Siachen and made a military post after displaying their flag at the top mountain of world. Thereafter Pakistan Army also reached there and made camps. Since then

India

has two third part of Siachen and one third part have been encroached by

Pakistan

army has occupied Gyand Lapas; it is the place from where

Pakistan

can keep an eye at Ladakh. Siachen is the toughest war place in the world and therefore no one can go at the crag of Siachen without the oxygen masks; you must have special dress, shoes and helmet. Even after having all these accessories and preventive measure you can’t spend few seconds there because according to the different studies at minus forty everything gets free-zed. So, at this place you even can’t complete the natural requirement for instance can’t pass the urine, stool. Because if any part of body gets uncovered it will be removed or damaged very badly. If you expose your finger it will become numb. If you remove your helmet your head and neck will be frozen with hairs. Likewise if any part of your feet get stripped it will also be frozen, and if you walk at forty and fifty degree temperature for some time regularly then your legs do not work and get local anesthesia and doctors have no option except to confiscate it. Continuous usage of oxygen mask can damage the hearing and visual power of human, also your abilities of smell and taste get reduced. Due to the fear of passing urine and stool people never eat anything and they take multivitamins and other steroid drugs for surviving. At Siachen no one can live alive or spend more then twenty days. Therefore every soldier is deputed there only for twenty days and even among them every third person never return healthy or safe .Either they become the victim of “snow bite” or they lose some part of body, (ear, nose, hand, leg and etc). Presently so many soldiers of Pakistan Army have lost their body organs in Siachen, they do not eat anything during their deployment at Siachen.

Siachen is very expensive place in the world for war. Pakistan Army spends 15 million every day which is monthly 450 millions and yearly it is 5.5 billion rupees. Similarly Indian Army squander thrice then Pakistan Army, their daily expenditure is 50 millions, monthly 1.5 billion and yearly it is twenty billion. In Siachen; every 3^rd day one Pakistani soldier get martyrdom and every second day one Indian soldier dies. So every year Pakistan loses its 100 soldiers and India loses its 180 soldiers. Since 1984 we have lost 3, 000/- soldiers and India has lost his 5, 000/- soldiers. The strength of Indian soldiers deputed at Siachen is seven thousand only and strength of Pakistani soldiers is four thousand and four hundred only. At minus forty and fifty temperature if any thing or metal get touched to your skin it enters into the organ of body. And for its eradication, it is necessary to remove that certain part of body. Our soldiers go there at their own feet and legs but they return at stature. They never complain or said that we are sacrificing for last 28 years for rest of Pakistan and never ask for any reward. We daily talk about those who die in bomb blasts, we talk about the desisting of NATO supply and Drone strikes. But we never talked about those who got martyrdom even in the peace time in Siachen, or about folks who have been permanently disabled. We never ask to them that since you have return from there how are you spending your life? Do you have any problem? They are the real heroes of Pakistan and its soil. Unfortunately we have forgotten them and their forfeit.

On Saturday, April 07, 2012 between 0300 AM to 0500 AM in Gayari sector an unfortunate and unexpected incident of land sliding occurred at Battalion Headquarter. This land sliding is one kilometer wide and seventy to eighty feet deep. At that time total 139 soldiers were there including eleven civilians. This incident of land sliding suddenly occurred and whole camp converted into graveyard within seconds. It is the horrible incident of 2012, in which 139 people are under the 80 feet layer of ice. Uncertainty in the forecast and lack of oxygen depicts the rare chances of their endurance but we do hope for miracle. Pakistan Army is dedicated and devoted to evacuate their soldiers from this very fateful incident. Therefore they are working for 24 hours. General Kiyani went there and saw the place where this incident took place. It encourages the morale and emotions of whole Pakistan Army specially those who are deputed in Siachen. Pakistan Army also shifted heavy machinery and equipments for dragging.

To manage this recent disaster and for future (till the time Siachen conflict is not solved) Pakistan Army must possess:

1. The latest equipment to locate people buried under the snow.

2. Such equipment and material for crushing and melting heavy snow.

3. The capability of airlifting such a heavy equipment/machinery on the world’s highest battlefield in the shortest possible time.

4. Installation of a monitoring and warning system for weather forecast and snow sliding.

Pakistan and India should sign an accord and pull out their troops from this dangerous battlefield. Both countries should respect their territories. Through an accord the two can save many lives. The authorities concerned should at least now wake up and stop fighting a pointless war. Nothing advantageous has been gained from fighting over Siachen.The two countries should stop fighting a futile war and value the lives of their soldiers.

This is hard time for Army and nation but why political leaders are still silent? President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari went India at private trip on same day when this incident took place. It was also necessary visit but it could be delayed for one day or for few hours, it would be better if he met with other soldiers in Siachin and then went towards New Delhi. President Zardari donated 1 million dollar to the management of Khuwaja Ajmer Sharif mazar. I do hope he donated this amount from his personal account because Khuwaja Ghareeb esquire will not accept the 95 million (9.5 crore) money of poor nation. I personally feel that President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari must donate a similar kind of check to the families of affected in Siachin incident because they are mujahidin and real heroes of Pakistan who have given everything for this nation and soil.

Other political leaders of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sharif, Shujaat Hussain, Moulana Fazal ur Rehman, Asfand Yar Wali and Imran Khan must also visit Siachin with same enthusiasm and zeal for boasting up the morale of soldiers.

INDIA PLAY THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN THIS REGION BY AMERICA FORGET PAKISTAN AND CHINA

2011-07-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone heard this statement from Secretary of state Hillary Clinton when she last time visited India, I was not surprised to this an irresponsible announcement from US. I wonder if US really wants to hand over this responsibility and thinks India is capable to do this, why US has not fulfilled yet his previous pledge of nuclear deal with India by then President Bush.

As the world specially US, Western world and its allies in war on terror are well aware that after the deliberate killings by Raymond Allen Davis in Lahore and later an operation in Abbot bad for Al-Qaida leader drastically departure burst almost Pakistan US relations and tensions between the spying agencies and military to military of both countries are bigger than ever in history.

It is also significant that un-justifiable pressure from US for releasing of CIA spy Raymond Allen Davis and regrettably Pakistan could not endure the same pressure for the reason that it has feared of impeding US aid, similarly when US operated in Abbot bad for Al-Qaida leader killing and soon after PNS Mehran incident created many questions towards the reliability of its Armed Forces and defense capability of county in the minds of people of Pakistan and rest of world too specially India.

Pakistan military first time took a rigid stance for expelling US contractors (intelligence officials) who existed in Pakistan under the umbrella of trainers to Pakistan military for fight against terrorism more virtuously. In reaction to this US desisted military aid to Pakistan and the leader of Pakistani spy agency visited soon after the bewildering decision of US at this stage. (I am not sure he received summons or he went for lodging protest against the decision or begging and importunate). Does such type of reactions from US are really enough to know how US sincere with Pakistan since its formation. I guess we never benefitted from any aspect whenever we (served) relations with US. We have major examples in history which concluded SEATO, CENTO, secondly when Soviet Union lost the war in Afghanistan, US left this region and specially Pakistan and Afghanistan like someone divorced, Pakistan did his atomic blasts on 28^th May, 1998 in response to Indian second atomic blasts of 13^th May, 1998. I remember US was the first country who imposed sanctions to its front line ally, but subsequently a very unfortunate incident of 9/11, again bring US near to its several time exploited dear country Pakistan for saving its citizens and soil against to own created Taliban and Al Qaida.

Eventually I surmise Pakistan military has woke up and ashamed to own decision to be the ally of its beloved America, we have history every time Pakistan have its relation with US, it’s more and more expensive for us, instead of growing and developing gradually like India (India is not busy since its creation for fighting of others Wars, even India did not support Soviet union during their tough time and interestingly eighty percent Indian defense equipments and technology (included nuclear) imported from than soviet union and now Russia).

I believe that recent twice visits in less than one month of Pakistani President to Iran have the strong backing of GHQ and reaction to US not obeying according to its desire or we have fed up to “DO MORE” as we have already suffered too much. It was obviously sure that after Pakistan’s President visit abhorring speeches against America will come up from Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad which are definitely not acceptable for US and its allies.

Consequently in the recent visit of New Delhi Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton retaliated Pakistan’s President Visits to Iran and announced or pushed after assigning new task to India that India must play the role of leadership in this region? It was understood to everyone in the world that such favorable statements and role for India from US is not pleasing Pakistan and China, and US shown its full loyalty after arresting the Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai at the charges of his links with ISI and protesting against Indian encroachment at Kashmir. So, from now onward US perspective is India can be the role model for this region.

A clear cut indication for Pakistan and China that how India is important for US instead of country who have lost more than 68 billion dollar, thirty six thousand general public, soldiers and other economical and financial losses are secede since so called war on terror has began for protecting US citizens, (forget rest of world). Being Pakistani citizens can we imagine that ultimately Pakistan has realized that US never be his true friend or except deficit from all characteristics of life, we never achieved anything whenever we have friendship with US except the sympathies of ADB, IMF and World Bank for loans. If I am not wrong I would say US has faced one time 9/11 and Pakistan is facing everyday due to so called war on terror.

Pakistan and US are not happy to each other and have profound lack of conviction, so both are running towards each other enemies for making conscious that we have substitute, whatever the reasons behind the curtain, it has proved from recent statements and visits that Pakistan military is not cooperating as it was before or according to the anticipation of US, and I guess both are trying to tease each other after showing the card of surrogate. Although it’s understood that Pakistan’s friend ship with Iran is not acceptable only for US, Saudi Arabia has also stout reservations and simultaneously Americans friendship with India is not agreeable only for China also for Pakistan. Secondly after breaching of Pakistan’s US relations will bring end of war on terror, and end of war on terror would resolve the most of world disputes and problems including Economical and this will help China to grow faster and replace US after becoming the new super power of the world.

So the leadership dream of US for India is far away neither this proxy war would goes towards end nor persists.

The FOIA blog: Bin Laden Photos -- The FOIA Process Begins

2011-05-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

The FOIA blog: Bin Laden Photos -- The FOIA Process Begins

PAKISTAN RAILWAY CRISIS AND ITS SOLUTIONS

2011-02-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

Among the means of transportation railways are the cheapest and safest mode for passengers and goods. It also helps in growth of economy for the country. A plan for a rail system in Pakistan was first proposed in 1858.A survey for railway line was initiated by Commissioner of Sindh ,Sir Henry Edward Fere in 1858. It was proposed that a railway line from Karachi City to Kotri, steam navigation from the Indus /Chenab up to Multan and from there another railway to Lahore and beyond be constructed. Thus, it was on 13th May, 1861 that first railway line was opened for public traffic between Karachi City and Kotri, the distance of 105 miles. The line between Karachi City and Kemari was opened in 1889 and by 1897 the line from Kemari to Kotri was doubled.

Since 1861 when the first railway line was laid down between Karachi and Kotri, the expansion of the railway network by the British came at a rapid pace up until 1947. The driving factors for this growth were strategic and economic in nature. For instance to stop the invasion of the Russians from the West, the British built the Khojak tunnel, the fourth largest at that time, in seemingly inaccessible areas of Balochistan to reach Chaman railway station. But after 1947, little has been done to expand and maintain this network.

In Pakistan train were the primary mode of transport until the 1970s, but since then their share has declined due to a shift in government focus from rail to road transport. From 2005 to 2010, budgetary expenditure on railways was only Rs45.5bn compared to Rs155bn on the national highways.

The total length of railway tracks in Pakistan is 5,072 miles (8,163 km). and important railway routes and details of passenger train and freight in Pakistan are following :

1. Peshawar-Karachi via Rawalpindi- Lahore

2. Karachi to Quetta via Kotri, Larkana and Jacobabad

3. Quetta to Zahidan

4. Rohri to Quetta

5. Multan to Jacobabad via Dera Ghazi Khan

6. Quetta-Zhob

7.Quetta to Chaman

8.Sibi to Khost

Passenger Train

Passenger traffic comprises 50% of the total revenue annually. During 1999-2000, this amounted to Rs. 4.8 billion. Pakistan Railways carries 65 million passengers annually and daily operates 228 mail, express and passenger trains. Daily, PR carries an average of 178,000 people. Pakistan Railways also operates special trains during occasions such as Eid- ul -Fitr, Eid- ul- Azha and Independence Day.

Freight

The Freight Business Unit, with 12,000 personnel, operates over 200 freight stations on the railway network. The Unit serves the Ports of Karachi and Bin Qasim as well as all four provinces of the country and generates revenue from the movement of agricultural, industrial and imported products such as petroleum oil & lubricants (POL), wheat, coal, fertilizer, rock phosphate, cement and sugar. About 39% of the revenue is generated from the transportation of POL products, 19% from imported wheat, fertilizer and rock phosphate. The remaining 42% is earned from domestic traffic.

The Freight Business Unit offers services to meet customer requirements and reduce costs through efficiency, innovation and modernization. All possible efforts are made to increase revenues and pass on the benefits to customers. The Freight Business Unit is headed by an additional General Manager.

The Freight Rates structure is based on market trends, particularly of road transport, which is the Railways' main competitor. The freight rates are no longer rigid but flexible, depending on the lead, peak-off peak season, and quantum offered.

A year 1900 view of the Karachi-Kemari Train.

Lahore Railway Station (stands as it was built by the British)

The Steam Engine finally resting outside Lahore Railway Station

PR is facing losses due to mismanagement, poor maintenance and weak ticket checks that allow people to get away with not paying for their tickets. There have also been political interventions in decision-making about which new routes to open. Furthermore, PR is not allowed to charge a market-clearing price; fares have always been dictated by the federal government.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority, the heavy floods have caused a loss of Rs.6.7 billion to the railway network as several hundred kilometers of lines were washed away. The railway coaches were also the targets of angry mobs and arson attacks after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination resulting in huge losses. Out of 522 total engines only 220 are in working order, out of which 100 are in poor condition. Ghulam Balour, Federal Minister of Pakistan Railways, has not made any effort to hide his helplessness over corruption affecting the department and the need for new locomotives.

The addition into problems of railways began in January 2011 when a cheque for Rs700 million issued by Pakistan Railways to Pakistan State Oil was not honored. The PSO subsequently stopped the supply of fuel to Railways. According to a senior officer at Railways headquarters in Lahore some 30 freight trains had to be stationed in yards near major railway stations across the country and only one freight train left for Muzaffargarh on Sunday. On an average, eight freight trains leave for Sindh for various destinations daily.Their are not enough funds for payment to PSO for high speed diesel to keep all freight trains running. The Railways have also not received a single penny from the Rs11.1 billion package recently approved by the cabinet.

I am also confused that if people wants to obtain urgent ticket reservations, they will not get the empty place in any train, and even on our major holidays i.e Eid- ul -Fitr, Eid- ul- Azha and Independence day if you want to travel then you must have an advance booking at least fifteen days or more, and the special trains are other then normal daily routine, innocent and poor people wait for the trains many many hours more then ten hours and sometime fifteen to twenty hours, and I have not seen any train to come at time in my twenty five years of life, six to seven hours train late is the normal routine in our country, why their is no accountability for them, are they not citizen of Pakistan? while if any air craft late for few minutes, it become the headlines of TV channels, although the journey taken by the eighty percent (backbone of the country) people of Pakistan, no one is consolidating at it, why this important institution of government is facing deep financial riddle after having colossal revenue and other conundrums, where the earnings of this organization are going, who is taking the compensation of this organization.

Followings are some of the suggestions to improve the condition for railway system of Pakistan:

1- First of all government should eradicate corruption in railways sector. Corruption is the menace that is destroying many sectors of Pakistani society.

2- Pakistan Railways should be privatized. This is also the possible solution of problem because currently government of Pakistan has to bear the huge losses monthly. Other benefits of privatization of Pakistan Railways include the increase in service quality and expansion of Railways because government has nothing to invest in PR.

3- Government should ask Chinese for help in order to make it profitable organization because China has made wonderful progress in railway industry. As China did in several other sectors including coal and nuclear power generation and manufacture of automobiles it has granted access to its enormous market by insisting on the transfer of technology. It has managed to develop its railway industry to the point at which it was able to out-compete the established systems in Europe and North America in winning the contract to build a high speed line connecting Mecca with Medina.

4- India is also making impressive strides in the railway sector. The underground system in Delhi has won the admiration of many foreign experts for its engineering as well as management. The inter-city system is being modernized in terms of both the quality of service on offer as well as the new equipment being used. The Indian and Chinese systems are by far the largest in the world and the two countries as a result of the advances they are making will come to dominate the world railway industry and business. Pakistan being a neighbor of these two rapidly growing and giant economies could benefit enormously from the development of the two systems.

5- Pakistan is blessed with coal reserves and a single Thar coal reserve of Sindh is about 850 Trillion Cubic feet which is more than oil reserves of KSA and Iran put together i.e. 375 billion barrels.

Chinese and other companies had not only carried out surveys and feasibilities of this project but also offered 100 percent investment in last 7 to 8 years but the “Petroleum Gang” always discouraged them in a very systematic way. If these reserves are exploited properly then the deficiency of fuel can be catered for the railways.

In conclusion, the best solution of this problem is the privatization of Pakistan Railway. We can take the example of PTCL; before privatization PTCL's monthly losses were in billions. Today it is not only a profitable organization but also providing excellent services to the customers. Corruption in Pakistan Railways can only be removed by privatization of Pakistan Railways.

This post is written by Umer Inam & Iqra Javed.

RAYMOND ALLEN DAVIS AND PAKISTANI AND US SILENT DIPLOMACY FOR HIS RELEASE

2011-02-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

Mr. Raymond Allen Davis killed two Pakistani guys (Fahim and Faizan) deliberately on 27 January 2011 in Lahore, claiming that he did all this in his self defense, immediately after this awful incident he contacted the consulate for instant help and a Jeep came from the US consulate for the evacuation of Mr. Raymond Davis and his colleague from the place of incident, unfortunately that Jeep also brutally crushed one individual namely Obaid ur Rehman at road, within few minutes three Pakistani died because of one US citizen, who was living illegally (or controversial) inside Pakistan with the alleviate of sick Pakistani administration, astonishingly everyone knows three Pakistanis died on that day (later day before yesterday the wife of Fahim also committed suicide because of revealing injustice with her), the case taking place is only at the Mr. Raymond Davis, even he killed two guys what about the another person who viciously crushed Obaid ur Rehman.

Soon after this incident on 28 January 2011 US embassy issued a press release which stated that the US consulate staff member involved in regrettable incident resulted in loss of three life’s, we are working with the Pakistani authorities to ascertain the facts, afterward their statements get metamorphosed in whittle of diplomatic immunity, and demanded his release alleged that his detention is illegal and also it is the violation of Vienna diplomatic convention, even some images of Raymond Davis passport which clearly indicating he was neither staff member of consulate nor the diplomat.

These images are also avowing Mr. Raymond Davis came in Pakistan for an official business and his visa was expired on 30-06-2010 but he was living inside the US consulate, using the transport and availing the all facilities of consulate, what sort of business he has done in his whole tenure of Pakistan and why he was living with diplomatic staff while his visa had already been concluded for last few months, how he kept the weapon illegally from where he get this, Is he did all this with the support of US consulate ?

There is an unambiguous contradiction in itself the press releases of US embassy in Pakistan, why US embassy not grasping the nature of occurrence, why not US Embassy cooperating with Pakistani security agencies to acquire the facts and illustrating good moral moreover respecting the Pakistani law for recovering the Jeep and its driver who brutally crushed the innocuous Pakistani and also the individual who were accompanied with Mr. Raymond Davis when he intentionally attempted the murdered of two naive Pakistanis, Government of Pakistan always copy and code the example of democracy of western world why not embracing the measures adopted by west democracy like United kingdom did in 1984 with Libyan Embassy, while London police were trying to protect the embassy from the protesters who were protesting against the killing of two students of Libya who criticized Colonel Gaddafi, but unfortunately someone fired at police from inner side of embassy and one police officer shot dead, anon the United kingdom police impose a curfew around embassy and demanded the culprit and stated that no anything (including goods, drinking water e.t.c) is allowed to send inside or bring outside until and unless embassy handed over the perpetrator, Libyan government refused to handover the offender and claimed the diplomatic immunity but United kingdom police deadly refused to accept the immunity and the embassy surrender after eleven days, United kingdom police eradicated all the staff of embassy from London, so the relations between United Kingdom and Libya remain suspended up to fifteen years, and Libyan government apologies in 1999 to the United kingdom and the families of sufferers also paid the colossal amount.

Why our both major political parties in Punjab and Federal are playing with the people of Pakistan and trying to keep away from this very sensitive issue and throwing ball in each other court, due to some political reasons, why they are worried for their personnel relations and reputation with US, I wonder that four Pakistanis has been died due to the an ordinary citizen of US, no any leader yet visited the families of victims specially Punjab government for exhibiting and expressing their sorrow and assure them for providing justice, because of this lackness one widow has done suicide, no one has shown sympathetic consideration and condolences of irreparable loss with the preys. Is that means our political parties have great menace to US or It is fact what we always heard since childhood that whenever any political party came in power in Pakistan only at the influence and endorsement of US, so it might mean our political parties are proving loyalty with US for imminent time.

Following are my few simple questions regarding the confrontation to the US embassy and the Pakistani politicians.

When US citizen killed two innocent Pakistani guys, how he feel threaten to them, what he saw? Although when he did the murdered ponderously, he fired to their backs, and he also confirmed their deaths after checking the radial vein of both individual?

If Mr. Raymond Davis was ingenuous, why he and his friends want to get flee from the spot?

Is the person yet called in the court who was accompanied by Mr. Raymond Davis at the time of calculatingly murdered?

Why the Jeep and its driver not yet handed over to the police or investigative authorities, (and I am sure they will not do) for the brutally crushing and killing of one more gullible guy?

Why Raymond denied his first day statement? May be in future he will say I gave that statement because I was in deep stress, therefore I gave such illusive statement, and facts are different?

Why our entire government including provincial and Federal worried for US citizen, why they are not worried for those who elected them and bring them in the governments? (Aiwano main)

Why there is a no any rally or (JALSA JALOOS) gathering, and addressing from any political party including religious against this inhuman act of Mr. Raymond Davis and US embassy demand of his release?

Why the both major political parties of Pakistan are worried for their interaction with US due to one culprit, why their compassion not with the affective families, I remember when provincial government of Punjab leaders took initiative on 28 May 1998 for Pakistan, they become the hero of country for forever, there names would always be remember in the history of Pakistan and world just to take the rigid stance for country, If they take same stance at this very important issue, their reputation would be more stronger because we cant expect the same decision to else government?
How many more Americans are living in the same capacity as Raymond Allen David was existing in Pakistan, what is his background in United States, Is he belong to Military or other intelligence agency? what sort of business he has in US?

WHAT IS HAQQANI NETWORK & ITS BACKGROUND

2010-07-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

The Haqqani network is one of three main groups in Afghanistan. The other two are the Quetta Shura Taliban, run by a leadership council headed by the confined Mullah Omar, and the other one is Hezb-e-Islami which runs by Gulbudin Hekmatyar, another experienced person during the Soviet war, all these groups have dissimilar command structures and toil under separate strategic plans.

A 70 years old men namely Jalaluddin Haqqani having two wifes, one belong to Arab, UAE, is one of them Haqqanis, who are ethnic Pashtuns from the Zardan tribe in southeastern Afghanistan Paktia province. The group maintains a power base in the region of Pakistani Pashtun region of Waziristan across the border from Afghanistan’s Khost province, his exile during the Republican Government of Sardar Daud in early 1970,s. He was initially a part of mujahedeen leaders that formed Hizb-e-Islami, when Hizb-e-Islami splintered in the late 1970’s, Haqqani followed Yunis Khalis rather than Hekhmatyar, and become one of most important commanders in the Hizb-e-Islami (Khalis) or HIK. Jalaluddin Haqqani raised to eminence during the 1980’s, receiving weapons and funds from CIA and Saudi Arabia to fight against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan.

Haqqanis do not accept the Taliban influence and often act independently. This groups had links with Al-Qaeda but did not need Al-Qaeda support, this group also did not require the aid of foreign fighters as it had the provision of Afghan local public, Haqqani established a close relationship first time with Osama Bin Laden in the 1980’s and it was not a concurrence that the first camp Bin Laden formed in Afghanistan Lion’s Den and some related infrastructure that he started to build were in Haqqanis territory. The relationship between Haqqani and the Taliban Government was not charming. Haqqani is a member of Ghilzai tribe of Pashtuns, where lands lie generally east of Kandahar, whereas the Taliban leadership was largely from the Durrani tribe and particularly from Sub-tribes around Kandahar itself Ghizalis prided themselves on the role they had played in defeating the Soviets, and Haqqani and other Ghilzai resented the primacy of the Kandahar Taliban. Haqqani also received a large sum of money to recruit soldiers after the Taliban massive 1997 defeat in Mazar-e-Sharif but the tensions with the Kandahari Officer he was assigned, among other things led to mass AWOLs from among his forces. He nevertheless remained loyal to the Taliban Government becoming Minister of Tribal Affairs, in late September 2001, Mullah Omar appointed Jalaluddin Haqqani the Commander-in- Chief of the Taliban Armed forces.

This is the picture of 37 years old Sirajuddin Haqqani, now a senior leader of Haqqanis network and also the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, presently he is running the network and preserve a close ties to AL-Qaeda because of his father ailment, recently we heard to the different news agencies that Haqqani admitted planning the 14, Jan. 2008 attack against the Serena hotel in Kabul that killed also one American citizen Thor David Hesla. Haqqanis has also connections with the ISI, similarly as it had the relations to CIA and other spy intelligence agencies at the time of Soviet Jihad. Peter Tomsen was US. Special envoy and Ambassador to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, said in an interview that the ISI has maintained its Jihad era ties with Haqqani network (but he forget to tell the relations of CIA in all this scenario with such groups) after the US invasion in October 2001, Haqqani was also invited to Islamabad for talks about a Post-Taliban Government, A top ISI official was also have to held talks with Sirajudding Haqqani, in Miranshah of North Waziristan in early March, 2009. In a prisoner exchange with Pakistan, Taliban led by Baithullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Government released three family members of the Haqqani family in November, 2007.which follows Haqqani;s brother-in-law Ghazi Khan, Haqqani’s brother Khalil Ahmad and son of Dr. Fazl-i-Haqqani. Haqqani is also mediated peace deals between the Pakistani Government and Waziri and Mehsudi commanders of the Pakistani Taliban in North and South Waziristan.

Such type of networks received significant support from the CIA, FBI during Soviet Union, may be still, because these intelligence agencies are not free from Sin, may be they are more cruel including R&AW. American and others have also ties with alike networks and groups in history. Pakistan and its agencies are always utilized as a scapegoat by other countries and their institutions. ISI’s involvement in bombing the Indian agency has to a great extent covered up the question “Why has India established four of its consulates and one Embassy in Afghanistan? “. India and Pakistan are contesting a proxy war in Afghanistan. The difference is Indian unlawful acts get buried while Pakistan’s corrupt involvement gets exhumed. This imbalance can lead to disastrous situations in the region and so it’s high time US learns to apply stabilizing strategies to the archrivals and the only nuclear powers of South Asia.

DEATH OF AIR CHIEF MARSHAL MUSHAF ALI MIR

2010-07-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

A person namely Mushaf Ali Mir, who also have the nick name Mashoo opened his eyes in Lahore, he was one of nine children of a middle class family (Kashmiri) including five sisters Sanobar, Shameem, Suraiya, Nasreen and Tasneem and fourth brothers Dilband Ali Mir, Mustafa Ali Mir, Asif Ali Mir and himself, this legend family believe at the shia sect in the religion. He lived with his family in Mohalla Shia Kashmirian area inside Mochi Gate. His father, Farzand Ali Mir was calligrapher and died when Mushaf Ali Mir was young and school going children, he went Government Wattan Islamia high school which is located at Brandth Road.

Mushaf Ali Mir joined as a commissioned in the Pakistan Air Force in 43rd GD (P) course on 22, Jan 1967. His friends believed that the Mushaf Ali Mir merged the Pakistan Air Force because he was inspired to his cousin the late Khawaja Yousaf who was (shaheed) martyred during the Indo-Pak war of 1965. He was the graduate of Flying Instructors School, and Combat Commanders School. He did his staff college course from Pakistan Air Force Staff College (now that is baptized PAF War College), and also from National Defence College, Islamabad. (now National Defence University). During his service his key command appointments were OC (Officer Commanding), CCS Mirage Squadron; OC, No.33 Wing at PAF Base Minhas, Base Commander, PAF Base Sargodha (now PAF Base Mushaf). and Air Officer Commanding, Southern Air Command and his staff appointments comprises Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans) in the AHQ, Chief of Green Project Flash (Mirage 2000-5), Project Director of Falcon (F-16), and Director Operations, his final assignment before promotion to CAS was Chairman of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Board at KAMRA. The exceptional landscapes of this person were a strong faith in hard slog, full of ideas, integrity and kindness. He always put others at ease with his simplicity, humility and sincerity of purpose. He was conscientiously honest, straightforward, with tremendous courage and boldness.

He was promoted by General Pervez Musharraf to become the 16th Chief of Air Staff on 20, Nov. 2000. ACM Mushaf Mir superseded five senior Air Marshals to become the (CAS) Chief of Air Staff. Those air marshals with their appointments are Qazi Javed Ahmed, DCAS (Personnel), Riazud din Shaikh, DCAS (Administration), Pervez Iqbal Mirza, AOC Southern Air Command, Zahid Anis, DCAS (Operations) and Muhammad Farooq, Vice Chief of Air Staff all were strive for premature retirement after his ACM.

On the morning of 20, Feb 2003, the Pakistani Air Chief died along with his wife Bilquis Mir and other fifteen senior officers and staff, when their Fokker F-27 crashed during a routine flight to PAF Base Kohat northwest of Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The incident was the first of its kind in the history of Pakistan Air Force. The official cause of crash was given to be pilot error among bad weather conditions. The casualties contained two Principal Staff Officers, AVM (Air Vice Marshal) Saleem Nawaz, DCAS (Administration) and AVM Abdul Razzaq, DCAS (Training) and all of Air Chief's personal staff officers including AC (Air Commodore) Rizwanullah Khan, PSO to CAS, AC Syed Javaid Sabir, Secretary to CAS, and Group Captain Aftab Cheema, APSO to CAS, Wing Commander Syed Tabassam Abbas, ADC to CAS. The casualties also included the pilots, Squadron Leader Ahmed Yousaf, Squadron Leader Mumtaz Kiani, and Squadron Leader Abdul Rab and the staff ST (Senior Technician) Ghazanfar Ali, ST Khan Muhammad, CT (Corporal Technician) Muhammad Ashraf, CT Khush Kadam Shah, CT Amjad Pervez and CT Fayyaz.

Gerald Posner is the investigative journalist and he claim that the death of Mushaf Ali Mir was not an accident but an act of interruption. He alleged in his book namely “WHY AMERICA SLEPT” and why they could not predict in enhance the 9/11, and also the Osama Bin Laden deal through his friend Abu Zubaydah with Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence through Mushaf Ali Mir in 1996 to get protection, arms and supplies for Al-Qaeda. Interestingly Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was also reluctant to stipulate some air bases to America for the invasion at Afghanistan after 9/11 which comprise Jacobabad and Shaheen Air base of Sargodha e.t.c.

Three protuberant member of Saudi Royal family died in mysterious circumstances, Prince Ahmed bin Salman, a nephew of the Saudi King, prominent businessmen and owner of the winning 2002 Kentucky Derby horse, was died to a heart attack at the age of 43. The very next day Prince Sultan bin Faisal, another nephew of King died while driving to Prince Ahmed’s funeral and a week later, Fahad bin Turki hypothetically died due to the thirst in the Arabian dessert. Seven months later the plane of Pakistani Air Force Chief Mushaf Ali Mir, crashed in the air.

Controversial Gerald Posner also indicates that all these confrontations linked to each other and the death of all these worth personalities are not unintentional, but have created due to the acknowledgments of captured Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubayda in March, 2002 from Pakistan. The deaths transpired not long after the respective governments were told of Abu Zubayda revelations. Only one more personality whom named taken by Abu Zybayda remains alive and that was Saudi Intelligence Minister Prince Turki al Faisal, Poser also said about him that he is the J. Edger hoover of Saudi Arabia, which means too powerful and aware of too many secrets to be killed off. Prince Turki al Faisal was removed from Intelligence minister responsibility ten days before 9/11 and later sends him the Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom giving him diplomatic immunity from any criminal prosecution.

BOI (Board of Inquiry) held by the Government of Pakistan (Musharraf regime) immediately, thereafter the plane crashed of Pakistani Air Force Chief Mushaf Ali Mir in the air, and the findings of the same BOI are still mysterious, why after almost eight years of this incident in which we lost the great personality with his colleagues and staff are still questionable who were behind this incident, what are the outcomes of BOI, who is responsible, who did this, why the fingers at the CIA and FBI, why not fingers at R&AW, It is an old tradition to put the blame at the pilot because he also no more alive with others, however during flight of any air craft pilot constantly remain in touch with the ATC (Air Traffic Control) room, who always have the strong influence at the assertions of the BOI of such a major disaster or might such incidents occurred due to the inclination and evade of internal people. It is also very horrible during the Military government, always the plane of the top most officials of military collided in the air.

BRIEFING OF DG ISI AT WAR ON TERROR INSIDE PAKISTAN

2010-07-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

During a comprehensive briefing on July 9, 2010 to Government Committee at National Security by ISI Chief blamed or confirmed that the chaos inside Pakistan, because of Americans dual strategy and western Involvement, including India, Israel and Afghanistan (some individuals from intelligence like Amrullah Saleh). He also said that two or may be more intelligence agencies from Europe and two agencies from Middle East are involved, they are working together for destabilizing Pakistan, before the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani urge the world that must help Pakistan for vanishing proxy war of terror, after hearing these statements to the top leadership of Pakistani Government and the superior Intelligence agency, many question comes in my mind.

First I would like to discuss about ISI, The perception abroad about this intelligence agency is that, it is the state within a state and similar others, no doubt that ISI has special influence at the core issues of Pakistan and also at the decisions procured by the Government, therefore Government cant obtain any initiative until taking them in confidence, It has seven to nine departments/sections, I also would like to share with their role, Joint Intelligence X, the role of this department is to coordinates and gather the information from others department internally, prepare reports and process the information further. Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau, this department is responsible to gather the information from Indo-Pak border. Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau, this department is responsible to close check the diplomats abroad and some intelligence operations in,

Russia

, South Asia,

Afghanistan

, Middle East, Joint Intelligence Bureau, this department is responsible to get the watch eye at politicians, further more it has three subsections. One is entirely responsible for

India

, like Indian Intelligence R&AW sub department CIT-X (Counter Intelligence Team-X) is completely responsible for

Pakistan

. Joint Intelligence North, this department is responsible for Kashmir issues. Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous, responsible for espionage including intelligence operations in other countries. There are also separate explosives and chemical warfare sections, after knowing all this about ISI it seems that it is a very strong intelligence agency compare to any other intelligence agency of world and we need the analogous agency for the defense of

Pakistan

. Why the questions and blame at his performance on the war on terror.

May be before many people have not seen this head shave men but I am sure they have heard his name many times specially when the discussion comes about Pakistan and his decision to be the ally of beloved America, according to former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf during an interview with CBS news on Sep, 2006 this men gave the short notice to an ISI general immediately after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and threatened to Pakistan back to the stone age, unless they must be the partner of the US war on terror at that time. Lt Gen Ehsan ul Haq.(later full General and CJSC) was the DG ISI and he remain from Oct. 2001 to Oct. 2004, astonishingly in the same time American President George W. Bush said in an interview, he was the unaware to the Secretary of State threaten even on the other hand, he only became aware while reading the newspapers, but Richard Lee Armitage confirmed he had held a conversation with Pakistani general but denied using a threat of military action embedded in such terms on professed basis that he was not authorized to do so. President Musharraf also said when American wants the help of

Pakistan

at any cost against this Proxy war,

India

has already been offered his Air bases and other all sort of assistance for playing an important role in this war, so

Pakistan

has no option except to the front line partner of

America

Eventually whatever the causes behind the panorama for penetrating in this war,

Pakistan

had entered! and its former president work with full devotion, dedication and enthusiasm to realizing Americans and rest of world his ample loyalty without any fear and care of Pakistani nation and Pakistan, while his colleagues Lieutenant General Muzaffar Usmani, Lieutenant General Muhammad Aziz Khan and Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmad who bring him into the power illegaly, they were strongly reluctant to be the part of this surrogate war but he did not heed anyone and with the passage of time the phenomena of the world including Pakistan has been distorted rapidly and entirely since this war whom direction and goal are not easily to empathize for everyone, especially in Pakistan, it has not get the support of public yet as the Government and the rest of world expects to the Pakistan, whereas many suicide incidents occurred in Pakistan after this proxy war and unfortunately still enduring, we have lose many innocent people and financial losses are unaccountable in this deputy war.

Today after a long time eight years and ten month of this understudy war the accent of Pakistani leadership getting change against extremist and militants, although they have also admitted many times. this war is not the war of others we are combating for our own interest, if they were skirmishing for own interest ever since its beginning then what’s wrong instantly, why their stance transmuting while Pakistan has already been face too much spoiled in this so called terror war and it has almost entered inside Pakistan.

Why the Pakistanis authorities varying their mind set up unexpectedly, which kind of information provoking about this war, or the Pakistan has realized that the decision made by Ex-President and Army chief that was not correct, how its consequences at the future of Pakistan, if Pakistan slouch contemporary and did not exists more in this war, what would be the future of TTP (Tehreek Taliban Pakistan), what would be the future of extremism and militants, if Pakistan does not demolished them completely.

Soon Pakistani government is going to announce once again his strategy after review at this proxy war and the facts are revealing, this time

Pakistan

can demand to Americans do more and some pragmatically steps for cultivating this war towards conclusion. I hope this time Pakistani government should not take any step hurriedly and they would take the decision with astuteness and at the larger interest of

Pakistan

Life and Suicide of Pakistani Community

2010-07-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

A few days back in Pakistan a mother kill herself and children’s due to the poverty, hunger, unemployment, price hike and many similar reasons, this incident too much hurter every humane at the earth of GOD. Unfortunately this disease is not only partial within Pakistan now the disease has got expansion and its wings widely taking in its range the Pakistani community outside the Pakistan too due to the same rationale.

I am here in Greece for last one and half years and before coming here in Greece I have no idea about the life in Europe it was my first experience but this experience is not according to my anticipation about Europe, especially when I see the life of foreigners and Pakistanis in Greece. Alas our majority of people are uneducated and mostly belongs to the rural areas of Pakistan, seventy percent are illegal and the rest encompass and they also acquired the immigration after giving the many years of their life, keeping in mind the same perception people came here illegally and they are still coming, The Government of Greece first time applaud the immigration to foreigners (only Albanian) in 1992 and later in 1998, 2001 and 2005 to remaining foreigners belong to several countries. (Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and African countries).

Specially In last three years many people came here at the hope of colorful life, lucrative employment, dollars, and euro; and some of them are professionals, skilled and highly educated members of society, As we all know very well the circumstances towards economy of whole world is not good and the financial system of every country is fluctuating neither developed, nor non developed and facing conundrum due to the recent crispy except China and Australia. These two countries are not affected as compare to any other country.

From 2007 to 2009 the fraction of suicide in Greece of Pakistani young individuals is elevated rapidly, and their ages were between 18 years to 30 years, more than fifty five people have committing suicide in last two years, the incentive of suicide is so familiar i.e. poverty, hunger, unemployment, with the lady who perpetrated suicide with his children’s recently in Pakistan, they don’t have jobs here, they have no any legal authentication to reside here, they are living here like slave, those who came here illegally they paid the colossal amount which is seven hundred thousand to nine hundred fifty thousand to smugglers who are involved in this business. First these smugglers wrest huge money from the innocent people and then dump them in sea or in desert or in any foreign jail, after paying this mammoth amount they are unable to go back while they are not getting success here because some of them sold their houses, agriculture land and some of them borrow the money to relatives and friends.

I think if these people exploit the same amount in their own country and spend this money for making their businesses, they can earn much more and live with dignity, admiration and regard with their own families. Moreover they can get the comparable future even better which they expect to Europe and Middle East, and no need of any suicide and slavery life after spending the huge amount in the right place and precise direction.

It is also the responsibility of our Government to ensure and control the human smuggling from our borders because weaknesses in law enforcement systems are first used to move people from Pakistan to Turkey, where immigrants who already made the journey many told me that men in army uniform helped them to cross the border in a bus. It is so meaningless and shameful for us.

A Reluctant Mind: Living and dying in Pakistan

2010-07-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

A Reluctant Mind: Living and dying in Pakistan